This invention relates to traction mats for use under vehicle wheels to provide traction under conditions such as ice, snow, mud, sand or clay or other loose soil, and the like.
Various devices or structures have been suggested for providing wheel traction assistance to motor vehicles and usually are in the form of a generally flat body for sliding against and partially beneath the vehicle wheel to provide for added traction. The flat body may have some sort of traction surface on the top side thereof for providing friction means against the periphery of the vehicle wheel. The bottom side of the mat has some sort of surface gripping means, such as cleats, undulations, or the like for gripping the snow, ice or other surface to provide traction where the vehicle otherwise would slip.
One of the major problems with traction mats heretofore available and as described above, is that the very cleats or undulations which are designed to grip the subjacent surface also cause a hindrance to slipping the mat into the angled juncture between the surface and the wheel periphery. Oftentimes, the wheel will simply engage and slip against the edge of the mat because the cleats or undulations make it practically impossible to manually slide the mat into the very narrow portion of the juncture between the surface and the wheel. In other words, the cleats or undulations are permanent fixtures on the underside of the mat and actually raise the mat off of the surface and prevent the mat from being manually positioned tightly between the wheel and the slippery surface.
This invention is directed to solving these and other problems by providing a novel traction mat which has cleat means physically movable relative to the mat body between inoperative and operative conditions in response to the vehicle wheel moving onto and over the mat.